After getting through the fake wall, Loimos descended into the dark of the underground, from what he could tell, there had been a fallout of some sort between the soul depth manifestators and all others, leading to the former being imprisoned beneath the main building, and indeed, the skeleton could sense quite a few life forces down there.
Just before, his senses would have been too restrained to sense them, but it would seem that either the bloody battle above ground had reached such catastrophic levels of massacres that death was settling into the realm, or perhaps Loimos had simply gotten more powerful from his little face-off against Thanatok, it wouldn't be nonsensical, fighting his nemesis a second time certainly was bound to be an illuminating experience.
The stairs came to an end, and the undead was faced with a rather derelict camp of some sort, full of thin and pale livings, they weren't so thin that you would think they were as fragile as vases, more like they were intentionally kept in between a state of relative good health, and relative weakness, neither condemning them to starvation, but also not allowing them to build up their physical strength.
There weren't that many of them, and the composition wasn't very sensical, there a few elders, naturally, they would age as no one would be giving them soul essence to prolong their existence, but considering that the livings of this realm were rather long-lived and had a lengthy youth, they were probably still at least two centuries old.
But there was also a rather large group of children huddled together and just waiting for nothing on one side, the youthful-looking adults were few and far between, and overall, only fifty people were held down there, just at a glance, it was easy to tell that they weren't reproducing amongst one another, the children weren't siblings and the amount of different adult women around wasn't enough to justify this many spawnlings.
So it was more likely that being a soul depth manifestation was just like other ways of power, it was mostly down to chance whether you would have a talent for it, as such, these folks had just been unfortunate and seemingly locked down there at a young age.
Loimos's arrival wasn't immediately noticed, the people around were much too lost in their own minds to notice him, even as he didn't attempt to hide, an elder tried to hide under a rickety bed as they finally began to notice the discrepancy, not any of them said anything, they just all cowered in fear or attempted to make themselves unseen, the group of children didn't move and just trembled in place.
Unless some families cared enough for their young, it was likely that no soul depth manifestation would go unnoticed, as they had a rather distinct quirk to them that was rather difficult to not notice, namely, their eyes glowed brightly, this effect seemed to grow more pronounced as one of the children, a girl that seemed a few years older than the rest, stood up and got in Loimos's way as he walked up to the youths.
Although the people here lived long lives even without extending their lifespan, they did grow up at the same rate as one would expect from a regular human, so she should be something of the order of fourteen, give or take.
Dressed in old robes that looked a bit ridiculous on her as they were much too ample and long, with raven black hair and bright blue eyes that were the same shine as that of raw soul energy, she blocked the way and did not falter even as Loimos moved his eyes to meet hers, the girl was certainly frozen stiff and terrified beyond measure, but she refused to get out of the way nonetheless.
The underground was deathly quiet, no one was saying anything, and none of the older livings seemed to be willing to step in for the youth, but that was understandable, it was rationale fear for them to be scared of Loimos, and really, only that one girl had had the courage to do anything, it hadn't' been much, but at least it was something.
As her eyes glowed brighter, the undead noticed that the eyes of the other children behind her were also beginning to glow, and from his perspective, it did not seem like they themselves were doing anything.
Being a little over two meter tall these days, Loimos bent his knees to get down to her eye-level, an action that did nothing to reassure the girl over the fate she was imagining for herself, and it wasn't like Loimos was actually trying to appeal to the naive children by putting on a kind front, something he could do very easily, instead, he stared at her for a few more moments, and then, his deep purple began to shine the same way as theirs did.
And this alone was enough to cause the oldest and seemingly, designated older sibling of the group to visibly relax.
"You… You are a depth manifestator like us?" she asked, her voice trembling.
That soft and childish tone certainly broke all possible impressions that she could act as the guardian here.
"It would not be inaccurate to say that I am" he had indeed just unfurled the basics of how that way of power functioned "However, I am not from here"
"W-Well… You come from above so…" she misunderstood him.
"I am not from this realm, my name is Loimos, Champion of the empire, you must have felts tremors from down there, that is because the city above is under attack, I have allied with the golden lord to unify the people here with my kind"
Naturally, the youth did not really understand what he meant by all of this.
"Are they like siblings to you?" he asked, his tone lacking that expected of a question.
"They are like my sisters" she replied without hesitation, the glowing of his eyes was putting her at ease despite the fact that he was a stranger from above.
"Then you should all follow, your captivity ends today"
"All of you were abandoned by your parents, yes?"
None said anything, but the silence was a clear confirmation.
"Then I shall guide you, you may see this as me taking on the role of your parents"
"Unlike them, I know exactly where your powers can be useful"
"You want to use us?" the girl was rather daring to be so direct.
"I want you to be of us, outside of here, people will appreciate your gifts" he said and offered his hand to her.
"Bellah, you shall be the leader of the Soror starting from today"